The Best Films of 2013 (So Far)

Stories We Tell

Before Midnight

Frances Ha

Fill the Void

Starbuck

Paradise: Love

Something in the Air

Upstream Color

Reality

Stories We Tell

Before Midnight

Frances Ha

Fill the Void

Starbuck

Paradise: Love

Something in the Air

Upstream Color

Reality

Stories We Tell

Few recent developments in independent cinema have been as rewarding as the discovery that Sarah Polley is as poised, sensitive and intelligent a filmmaker as she is an actress. This unclassifiable work is her finest, a formally ingenious and emotionally overwhelming investigation into her family life and the nature of storytelling itself. - Justin Chang
After discovering that the man who raised her wasn't her biological father, actress-turned-helmer Sarah Polley set out to unearth some of her family's deepest secrets. Far from therapy-through-filmmaking, her approach grapples with not only the boundaries between fact and fiction, but the very fabric of how people convince themselves (and others) what they want to believe. - Peter Debruge

One of the great movie romances — hell, the great movie romance of the modern era — achieves its richest and fullest expression in this unexpected but thoroughly necessary third date with Jesse and Celine. Exquisite, hilarious, melancholy perfection, Richard Linklater's latest seamless collaboration with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy is my choice for the year's best film so far. - Justin Chang

If Lena Dunham's "Girls" made it hip to be an aloof twentysomething adrift in New York, then fellow indie darling Greta Gerwig does the equation one better, collaborating with older and wiser co-writer/director Noah Baumbach in this alternately insightful and uproarious portrait of a young woman searching for stability in the Big Apple. - Peter Debruge

Israeli director Rama Burshtein makes an outstanding debut with this visually, musically and emotionally enveloping drama about a young ultra-Orthodox woman (the remarkable Hadas Yaron) facing an impossible decision. Delicately and assuredly, Burshtein examines a world few of us know and reminds us, in a way the movies rarely do, that love and marriage are first and foremost matters of the spirit. - Justin Chang

Lest you think me unmoved by mainstream movies, rest assured this infectiously appealing Canadian farce (about a former sperm donor confronted with the 142 kids he fathered) is so audience-friendly that it's being remade as "The Delivery Man" with Vince Vaughn this fall. The original has that bouncy "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" feel to it. - Peter Debruge

No matter how awkward your summer vacation might seem, it can't be more uncomfortable than the time corpulent Austrian tourist Teresa (Margarete Tiesel) spends seeking companionship among the Kenyan rentboys in the first installment of Ulrich Seidl's "Paradise" trilogy — a satire whose sense of humor steers auds into squirm-inducing territory. - Peter Debruge

"Shouldn't revolutionary cinema employ a revolutionary syntax?" It's a sly line of dialogue that gets at the heart of Olivier Assayas' wise and wistful memory piece about his post-1968 activist youth. With the bittersweet clarity of hindsight and the relaxed assurance of a master, Assayas doesn't romanticize his experiences so much as quietly demystify them. - Justin Chang

Sporting the year's best title so far, Shane Carruth's enigmatic sophomore feature fuses the mathematical precision of "Primer" to a hypnotic visual-aural sensibility worthy of Malick. It also contains a brilliant allusion to the gospel accounts of Jesus' life — at least, that's my interpretation. Feel free to make your own. - Justin Chang

The perfect fable for an era of flash-in-the-pan celebrity, this jaunty satire from (usually gritty) "Gomorrah" director Matteo Garrone feels like the kind of moral tale that once would have been passed down through generations. The gist: A fishmonger convinced of his imminent fame following a reality-TV audition spirals into a paranoid fantasy world of his own invention. - Peter Debruge

Few recent developments in independent cinema have been as rewarding as the discovery that Sarah Polley is as poised, sensitive and intelligent a filmmaker as she is an actress. This unclassifiable work is her finest, a formally ingenious and emotionally overwhelming investigation into her family life and the nature of storytelling itself. - Justin Chang
After discovering that the man who raised her wasn't her biological father, actress-turned-helmer Sarah Polley set out to unearth some of her family's deepest secrets. Far from therapy-through-filmmaking, her approach grapples with not only the boundaries between fact and fiction, but the very fabric of how people convince themselves (and others) what they want to believe. - Peter Debruge

One of the great movie romances — hell, the great movie romance of the modern era — achieves its richest and fullest expression in this unexpected but thoroughly necessary third date with Jesse and Celine. Exquisite, hilarious, melancholy perfection, Richard Linklater's latest seamless collaboration with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy is my choice for the year's best film so far. - Justin Chang

If Lena Dunham's "Girls" made it hip to be an aloof twentysomething adrift in New York, then fellow indie darling Greta Gerwig does the equation one better, collaborating with older and wiser co-writer/director Noah Baumbach in this alternately insightful and uproarious portrait of a young woman searching for stability in the Big Apple. - Peter Debruge

Israeli director Rama Burshtein makes an outstanding debut with this visually, musically and emotionally enveloping drama about a young ultra-Orthodox woman (the remarkable Hadas Yaron) facing an impossible decision. Delicately and assuredly, Burshtein examines a world few of us know and reminds us, in a way the movies rarely do, that love and marriage are first and foremost matters of the spirit. - Justin Chang

Lest you think me unmoved by mainstream movies, rest assured this infectiously appealing Canadian farce (about a former sperm donor confronted with the 142 kids he fathered) is so audience-friendly that it's being remade as "The Delivery Man" with Vince Vaughn this fall. The original has that bouncy "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" feel to it. - Peter Debruge

No matter how awkward your summer vacation might seem, it can't be more uncomfortable than the time corpulent Austrian tourist Teresa (Margarete Tiesel) spends seeking companionship among the Kenyan rentboys in the first installment of Ulrich Seidl's "Paradise" trilogy — a satire whose sense of humor steers auds into squirm-inducing territory. - Peter Debruge

"Shouldn't revolutionary cinema employ a revolutionary syntax?" It's a sly line of dialogue that gets at the heart of Olivier Assayas' wise and wistful memory piece about his post-1968 activist youth. With the bittersweet clarity of hindsight and the relaxed assurance of a master, Assayas doesn't romanticize his experiences so much as quietly demystify them. - Justin Chang

Sporting the year's best title so far, Shane Carruth's enigmatic sophomore feature fuses the mathematical precision of "Primer" to a hypnotic visual-aural sensibility worthy of Malick. It also contains a brilliant allusion to the gospel accounts of Jesus' life — at least, that's my interpretation. Feel free to make your own. - Justin Chang

The perfect fable for an era of flash-in-the-pan celebrity, this jaunty satire from (usually gritty) "Gomorrah" director Matteo Garrone feels like the kind of moral tale that once would have been passed down through generations. The gist: A fishmonger convinced of his imminent fame following a reality-TV audition spirals into a paranoid fantasy world of his own invention. - Peter Debruge

Few recent developments in independent cinema have been as rewarding as the discovery that Sarah Polley is as poised, sensitive and intelligent a filmmaker as she is an actress. This unclassifiable work is her finest, a formally ingenious and emotionally overwhelming investigation into her family life and the nature of storytelling itself. - Justin Chang
After discovering that the man who raised her wasn't her biological father, actress-turned-helmer Sarah Polley set out to unearth some of her family's deepest secrets. Far from therapy-through-filmmaking, her approach grapples with not only the boundaries between fact and fiction, but the very fabric of how people convince themselves (and others) what they want to believe. - Peter Debruge

I agree w/Rick B. The fact that people enjoy this movie astounds me, since it’s completely incoherent and goes nowhere. Literally. It’s not entertaining at all and the characters have no chemistry. I mean, I could go on and on and on but I will say that I watched this with a friend and instead of turning the movie off we fast forwarded it at 4 times speed and, for the first time, it played at a correct pace. I’m confused by your including this movie on your list, and by other pretentious film people’s obsession with it.

Upstream Color is, by far, one of the absolute worst films I have ever seen. The movie is, and this is being nice, completely incomprehensible as a narrative work of film. It is nothing more than a bunch of random shots edited together with music and some occasional meaningless dialogue. It reminds me of the “video tests” people post to Vimeo when they’re testing out their new still camera’s video recording feature. The characters are never set up and the dialogue scenes are full of negative energy. As a result, I have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about, I don’t like them nor do I care what happens to them. I don’t know what Shane Carruth was going for other than satisfying his own selfish need to vomit out this horrible tasting gallon of cryptic bile, but it certainly wasn’t to try and entertain any human being with a normally functioning brain. I suspect the only reason this movie gets any press at all is due to its technical competency. That is, it looks like a properly shot movie and has a decent sound mix. If this movie had been shot “Dogme 95″ style, I guarantee you would have walked out of the theater after 5 minutes instead of 10. The bottom line is that Shane Carruth does not respect a mainstream audience, and in fact takes every opportunity to insult them to their fact and mock them at the same time with this self-indulgent waste of projector lamp life.

Based on this list, I got ahold of Starbuck and watched it the other night. Infectious was the right word. Every time I expected it to veer into maudlin or cliched territory, it veered towards originality and a sweetness that fortunately lacked the saccharin qualities these farces usually display. At first, the main character seemed to be a real jerk, so I had some qualms, but quickly his charm overwhelmed my fears, and he won me over. Not every scene sparkled, but overall it was absolutely delightful. Glad that these films are recommended here. I’m going to check out some of the others that either never played in my town or came and went with little notice or coverage.